In the opening moments of Thursday’s debate, President Joe Biden stumbled because he misspoke some of the opening lines And his voice was ready to answer, while sources said he was suffering from cold.
Mr Biden’s voice never recovered during the 90-minute debate against former President Donald Trump. President Donald Trump — which ended his chances of convincing Americans, through his debate performance, that at age 81 he was healthy enough to serve another four-year term in the White House. A survey conducted by CBS News earlier this month It found that only a third of voters think Mr Biden has the cognitive ability to be president, while half of voters believe Trump does.
45 minutes after the debate, sources familiar with Mr Biden’s debate preparations said he had been suffering from a cold for the past few days. A top official said the president was examined by a doctor at Camp David who confirmed he had a cold. He said the president had tested negative for Covid.
Additionally, when the President was answering a question about the tax rate for wealthy Americans, he lost his train of thought and had difficulty naming Medicare.
“There are 1,000 billionaires in America – I mean there are billionaires in America. And what’s happening? They’re in a situation where they actually pay 8.2% taxes, if they paid 24%, 25% – any of those numbers – we would raise $500 million dollars – billion dollars, I should say – over a 10-year period,” he said, listing a number of priorities such as child care, paying for health care and “making sure that we’re able to give every single individual what I’ve been able to do with COVID, sorry, whatever we can, deal with, uh…”
The President then paused for a while and had difficulty speaking.
“Sorry,” he said, “we have to deal with whatever we have to do…”
After this the President stopped again.
He added, “See if we finally defeat Medicare.”
“Thank you, President Biden,” CNN moderator Jake Tapper said. “President Trump?”
“They screwed up Medicaid, screwed it, they’re screwing up Medicare,” Trump said.
Mr. Biden’s debate performance upset some Democrats, with one House Democrat familiar with the conversations saying, “I’ve never seen craziness like this before.” But House Democrats cautioned that it was unclear how seriously they would press Mr. Biden to step down from the 2024 ticket.
Later in the debate, Mr Biden and Trump were asked to address concerns about their ability to be president at their age.
“I spent half my career facing criticism as the youngest person in politics. I was the second-youngest person to be elected to the United States Senate and this guy is three years younger than me and far less capable,” Mr Biden told voters to look at his record and “look at what I’ve done.”
Meanwhile, Trump claimed he had passed two cognitive tests.
When Mr Biden addressed his supporters at a watch party after the debate, he sounded more energetic, and his enthusiasm seemed to have returned to his voice.
— Originally Published by CBS NewsWritten by Caitlin Yelk with original reporting by Nancy Cordes and Ed O’Keefe.
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